It's almost Christmas, and that means new games and new devices to play them on! Perhaps that's why I've been busting my ass playing the nine games spotlighted in this Week in Gaming Apps—gotta make room for more, right?

On top of a handful of great games like the inventive shooter Alpha Zero, the tower offense brilliance of Anomaly: Korea and the simple charm of Scribble Hero, I also managed to pen three of this week's Gaming Apps of the Day, take care of two 18-month-old children and finish my Christmas shopping, all while juggling knives and cats, often at the same time.

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What can I say? I love you guys. Consider these suggestions your Christmas presents. Feel free to go in on a gift for me. I like islands.

iOS

Alpha Zero
A space shooter with a unique control mechanics — drag the ship about with your finger, aim with the other. Quite touching!

If you've ever played a turn-based strategy game on the iPad, chances are you're playing a game with PC controls and/or design shoe-horned onto the touch-screen device. Some are OK, some can even be good, but you can never shake the feeling that you're playing a game wearing somebody else's ill-fitting shoes. More »

I nearly let the fact that Ludomo Gamestudio's Quiver looks like a shareware PC game from the mid-90s stop me from playing. Had I given in to my graphics snobbery I would have missed out on one of the most inventive puzzle games available on Android. More »

I've been wanting to play the Penny Arcade card game from Cryptozoic Entertainment for ages. At this year's San Diego Comic-Con I spent a great deal of time wandering past the Penny Arcade booth, holding the cards in my hand or casting longing glances from afar. Had Jerry and Mike noticed me there, they might have been assumed I was stalking them. More »

Riding high on the continued success of Cut the Rope, developer ZeptoLab serves up victory pudding, only this pudding doesn't want to be eaten or smeared on the naked bodies of unpleasant people. Pudding Monsters wants to be free. More »

The original version of Karateka launched on an Apple II two decades ago and helped show that video game design could deliver idiosyncratic, narrative experiences. Back then, both Apple and video games were in their toddler stage, stumbling around trying to figure out what they could do. More »

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